So since we are well into getting this new year off to a good start, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future. Soon I’ll be hitting May 8th, which is the one year anniversary of I am ARG. It’s been a crazy year so far and I’ve loved every minute of it. This whole thing has opened me to some really awesome opportunities and I’m excited and scared all at the same time and I have you guys to thank for that.
I want to open a store…
How I do this, I do not know. I’ve had some talks with a number of people about handling things, but I’m unsure of the logistics right now. Plus being a Canadian there’s a whole other slew of things I need to figure out as well. Not many good tutorials about setting up a webcomic business for canadians unfortunately. I might have to write my own…
Since I’ve got this new fancy site, I feel the need to start making back the money I’ve put into this site. I’m not sure any of you are aware of this but I have yet to make any money on the comic. I’m not angry or upset about that, quite the opposite in fact. I happily spent money on advertising and hosting to get to a point where I’m satisfied with where the comic sits right now. I’m not “Living off my comic” good. But I’m a nice chunk of the way there and that’s something I honestly would love to do.
I technically don’t have a job right now. I’ve been out of contract for about 6 months now and collecting employment insurance (Thank Carl sagan’s turtleneck for paying into that). Animation’s a tough nut to find work in. Especially in Toronto, which is kind of a saturated market when it comes to animators. I’ve got a line on a couple of jobs and hopefully I can get back to work. That being said, I’m not just lazily sitting around doing nothing and then crapping out a comic. I’m helping my parents right now with some stuff and that takes my time up out of the day.
So I’m gonna start opening up some things. Ages ago I mentioned about doing some commission work. I think either this week or next I’ll open myself for that. Along with getting the store up and running I wanna get more involved with you guys, my readers. I try and respond to every tweet on my twitter (@IamARG) and lately I’ve been making an effort to reply to every comment. But I wanna connect more to you guys. I’m thinking of answering questions on my Tumblr or maybe possibly setting up a forum.
I’d love to hear your suggestions and hell, even just talk.
-ARG!
The way we started our store was through RedBubble.com. Granted, we’ll eventually want to sell our own merch directly, but it’s good to start because there’s no overhead costs, not worries about shipping, etc. Still, if you find some new, awesome option in Canada for opening an online store, let me know. And if I find something else I’ll be sure to fire it your way.
i’m thinking of just setting mine up myself. I have the necessary things to get it going (printers, storage, shipping materials) I just need to get the web side of it and business side of it set up. I’m going to speak to my accountant about the tax things for selling and advertising in the states…
I miss Carl Sagan.
me too…
I’ve been thinking of moving to Toronto to look for animation work… in light of what you said I’m afraid I may have to rethink that. 🙁
There’s jobs in toronto for animation. it’s just that it’s a bit cut throat for them. There’s like over 4 schools of animation in and around the area so every year there’s 100 new people on top of all the other people already there…
holy shit…… the anti-grav. controller 0.o
Some things you could also offer are high quality prints of your strips (signed possibly). Many web comics I’ve seen, go through paperback publishing of their comic (and sometimes do digital versions).
Also, calendars are also cool. Easily set up in power point or word.
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.